Tales of a landlady: Now that theyve gone

The messy tenants are out, but now how do you pay the mortgage until you sell, asks Rosie Millard

So, the problem is this. The tenants, a gang of four friendly blokes who work in the City — as DJs and oxygen sellers in night clubs, not bankers — are leaving my four-bed house in Hackney, which I have rented to them since Christmas at £2,500 a month. The mortgage on the house is £2,200 a month, so the arrangement worked out well.

The house is now on the market, but the interior is, shall we say, rather chaotic. Would-be buyers have been horrified at the state of the rooms — if they can get into them. So I want to tidy up the place, and show it in a pristine condition. While renting it out on a short-term basis to a fanatically neat family. Otherwise I will have a £2,200 monthly mortgage bill without anything to cover it.